As so often happens in life, we came to a fork in the road.
Mind you, by this time we’d climbed 6,492,745 steps…. so the fact that the sign to the left said difficult route? Did not fill me with joy.
But ever the supportive wife, I let the husband decide which path we’d take. Thankfully his aching back and residual sciatica made him veer right, although the name Devil’s Turnpike didn’t inspire a lot of confidence as to it’s ease of use.
Husband explored more caves.
I photographed more trees and rocks.
And climbed more steps.
And then even more steps.
And then thought about all the steps I’d have to climb down when we were through.
Did I mention there were a lot of steps?
There were a lot of steps.
Okay, back to the rocks.
Why is there never a pogo stick around when you need one?
We walked past rocks, over rocks, through rocks….
And occasionally under rocks.
While praying silently for the ground to be earthquake free.
Yeah, thanks for that helpful factoid.
As the husband climbed the Devil’s Turnpike…..
And entered the next cave…
I took the path that had my name written all over it.
All day long baby…
I do give him credit though.
He’s still pretty limber for his age…
One final cave to go… and it was called the Lemon Squeeze.
Yours truly?
Yup. Every party has a pooper… and that day, it was me.
Oddly enough the Squeeze was the husband’s downfall. He couldn’t do it. Too small, too tight.
And you know if he got stuck? He was staying there…. because I wasn’t going in after him.
They were tiny, cramped, straight down and seriously dark.
So yours truly let the husband crawl through them while I took the bypasses above ground.
I know, a post about caves from above the caves doesn’t sound very satisfying….
But does that look at all comfortable?
I still got to walk through rocks…
And without all the bumps, bruises and scrapes the husband amassed that day.
Although there were some dead ends.
I’m not sure who named the caves…
But there certainly were a lot of them.
And some of the exits were awesome.
Damn!
That’s a lot of rock.
Husband was happy as a clam. He used to go caving as a kid and it probably brought back some good memories. You know, like terror… and claustrophobia.
He kept trying to talk me into going down there with him, but when I peered down into the blackness?
I looked something like this….
Just….
No.
I think he was a little nervous after reading the name of this one …
But he shimmied through quite well.
Then turned around and asked for my extra camera. (Pardon his language. Sh*t is a favorite word lately)
I left him happily exploring and snapping pictures in the dark… (which I won’t share with you because he can’t take a photo to save his life. They’re either blurry… or solid black) …and made my way around another bypass.
My appreciation for the people who built these boardwalks growing with each step.
Clearly no rock was harmed during the construction process.
I had to laugh yesterday when I checked my stat page and saw that something called The Cape Cod Daily News was listed as a referrer.
Since we just got back from a trip to the Cape, (and yes, we tend to be talkers and meet a lot of people) I was wondering which one had found me.
Not to mention how.
Because while I am a girl, it may surprise you to learn that my real name is not actually River.
Shocking, I know.
And it’s not like I start conversations with strange people by saying, “You really should check out my blog at WordPress. There’s plenty of woodchuck drivel for everyone.”
So I perused the Cape Cod Daily News site and found this:
Now I can only imagine the reaction of the poor native Cape Codders who clicked on it and found me channeling Khaled. That couldn’t have been pleasant.
And while I won’t tag Cape Cod this time… because let’s face it, I’m basically making fun of what they consider news…. the coastal cities residents are going to rue the day when Cape Cod Daily puts that action to work when I start my latest vacation series photo blitz.
So I hope you’ve been enjoying my White Mountain vacation series. I know I tend to go a little overboard with the pictures, but what can I say?
I’ll have you know it took me an entire week to wade through the 1704 shots I’d taken and distill it down to a reasonable essence.
Alright… yes.
The essence is going to run halfway through December, but just think how long it would have gone on if I hadn’t distilled.
Sorry, that was harsh.
Khaled had me feeling a little street.
Anyhoo… the reason for this post?
Remember when I told you we were going to have to cram a few vacations in before the end of the year because the husband wasn’t retiring? Well, good news! We just finished vacation week number two and are probably on the road returning from Cape Cod as you read this.
Yup.
That means another tsunami of photographs from our coastal Massachusetts adventures.
Nope.
Sorry, I can’t.
Hard to believe that in all the years I’ve lived in New England, I’ve never visited that region…. and though we’re going off season, I’m sure we had a blast. My plan was to hop the car ferry over to Martha’s Vineyard as well but we’ll play that by ear as I don’t know their winter schedule.
So sit back and enjoy the (virtual) ride.
Because you followed me, silly.
Now pay the price and enjoy the modern version of your 1950’s neighbor’s slide show.
